Private School or Public School

[Hopeless Sinner]

It's a choice that needs to be made by comparing specific options. There's no set answer to this. If you live in a shitty school district then private may be a better option, but it's gotta actually be better than the public option.

[californiagrown]

If your district is decent to good, and your kid doesn't need special ed, your kids success comes down to parental involvement. Period. Every decent middle school offers advanced math lanes, every decent HS offers tons of AP classes, and college classes at the JC are easy to get into.

Fwiw, my public alma mater stopped releasing scores to US news after we ranked very high nationally a few years in a row and the pressure it created led, in part, to a rash of suicides.

This subject is, imo, a perfect study in diminishing returns. If your public schools are good, then do that and spoil your kids with trips/travel/tutors/extracaricculars with half the money you save... Put the other half in a college fund so they graduate debt free.

[carlh]

Seattle public is cutting advanced learning every chance they get because they don’t like the racial balance in the classes. My son is currently 2nd grade and can do 5th gradeish math own his own but the school won’t let him accelerate. We will be evaluating options that let him achieve his potential including private school or moving to the burbs. To be determined what makes the most sense.

[yeahman]

You definitely want a high school with a good selection of AP classes.

[Buster Highmen]

Seattle public is cutting advanced learning every chance they get because they don’t like the racial balance in the classes. My son is currently 2nd grade and can do 5th gradeish math own his own but the school won’t let him accelerate. We will be evaluating options that let him achieve his potential including private school or moving to the burbs. To be determined what makes the most sense.

Eastlake

[CascadeLuke]

Eastlake

Hey- I made an impression there. Good ol days.

[ötzi]

You don't know that. There's a lot more to education than the curriculum. Even if they were in a bad school, being forced to deal with it and succeed regardless may have been the most valuable experience they could possibly have had.

or not, ya know? Hard to say from here.

[fatnslow]

Eastlake

Great option as long as the kid can get in and the financial aspect isn't crippling. You also need to make sure you have enough finances to support the adolescent social life style that comes at a place like Eastlake. Tough being the poor kid at a place of wealth.

[phatty]

Seattle public is cutting advanced learning every chance they get because they don’t like the racial balance in the classes. My son is currently 2nd grade and can do 5th gradeish math own his own but the school won’t let him accelerate. We will be evaluating options that let him achieve his potential including private school or moving to the burbs. To be determined what makes the most sense.

Issaquah School District elementary schools have the Merlin program for advanced kids. No racial aspects. Match the score on the test and get in. All Merlin kids attend the same elementary regardless of where they live (though tied to the high school they would attend). Merlin starts in 3rd grade, I believe. I had a kid test into it, but we didn't do it since we had multiple kids in elementary and didn't want to move them all or deal with kids in different schools. He's graduating this year so my info is a bit out of date. Middle schools have advanced Math tracks (as well as other programs).

Plus you are that much closer to the Pass... Just sayin.

[XXX-er]

a local hippie I know went to private school where he met Robert Kennedy junior, sez the bob had a connection to THE purest mescaline eva

[Cisco Kid]

I went to a private school where one teacher had to deal 48 kids in the same classroom all day long. A kid in my class kid that retired a few years ago as the Director of R&D at a Fortune 100 company. It's like a box of chocolates.

[The Reverend Floater]

Yes it depends on the options, i.e. how good or bad is the public school and how much better are private alternatives. But the other variable is the kid, and that's a big one.

Idaho is cutting education funding (shocker) and our local elementary accelerated learning programs are getting "restructured," meaning they're cutting 3 out of 4 of the GATE program admins in the school district. Subsequently, there will be one GATE admin for four elementary schools and teachers will be expected to administer additional items to their regular curriculum to kids who qualify , on top of running their normal classroom with less resources due to budget constraints. Thus, the public option is becoming less attractive because our kid does best when she's challenged and that's effectively going away. We're now evaluating the private options here as she would seemingly thrive in a more elastic, intimate learning environment that our public school can't be expected to provide.

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[riser4]

Pre-K. It seems competitive? It's walking distance, organized, and they communicate well so those are big for us.

In VT when our kids were that age, Pre-K was all private and wasn't considered school, so I assumed you meant HS or something. At that age, convenience is worth a lot. The real question is, do you plan to do private school the whole way through?

[Harry]

I went to a private school where one teacher had to deal 48 kids in the same classroom all day long. A kid in my class kid that retired a few years ago as the Director of R&D at a Fortune 100 company. It's like a box of chocolates.

Works both ways.

I went to public schools and a guy in my class became a legit billionaire by age 40. He built a huge place in the Yellowstone Club and he used to invite me over for skiing all the time.


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[Mazderati]

sounds more a quiet call for a cheque with a note to the Head in the Memo line

if I’m reading the sub-text

Not a bad idea. If I was in admissions and knew someone really wanted to attend, it would be a factor in my decision making given all else reasonably equal. I think that is all it is.

In VT when our kids were that age, Pre-K was all private and wasn't considered school, so I assumed you meant HS or something. At that age, convenience is worth a lot. The real question is, do you plan to do private school the whole way through?

We would apply for K anyway and figured why not start now. The school pre-K to grade 12 and continuity is part of the appeal.

[riser4]

Works both ways.

I went to public schools and a guy in my class became a legit billionaire by age 40. He built a huge place in the Yellowstone Club and he used to invite me over for skiing all the time.


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A guy a year ahead of me in the public schools I went to 1-12 is a billionaire. I never knew him very well. Small town kid with drive and ambition in a decent school system did well for himself.

[Buster Highmen]

Hey- I made an impression there. Good ol days.

So that's what that dent was.

[schuss]

Yes it depends on the options, i.e. how good or bad is the public school and how much better are private alternatives. But the other variable is the kid, and that's a big one.

Idaho is cutting education funding (shocker) and our local elementary accelerated learning programs are getting "restructured," meaning they're cutting 3 out of 4 of the GATE program admins in the school district. Subsequently, there will be one GATE admin for four elementary schools and teachers will be expected to administer additional items to their regular curriculum to kids who qualify , on top of running their normal classroom with less resources due to budget constraints. Thus, the public option is becoming less attractive because our kid does best when she's challenged and that's effectively going away. We're now evaluating the private options here as she would seemingly thrive in a more elastic, intimate learning environment that our public school can't be expected to provide.

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And you're making sure to act and vote in line with your displeasure on this, right? Schools often transcend politics when people fuck with them enough.

[esseff]

Look at / compare the curriculum at each grade level. We started in public - in a district that overall is crap (the district, board and the union all work together like Larry, Moe & Curley), but had a few gems in terms of individual schools. After a few years of teaching to the lowest common denominator, dealing with some teachers that are not qualified to work at Starbucks (let alone teach young kids) and poor resources for kids/parents that are on cruise control and need more challenges, we went private / parochial. The curriculum gap was almost two full years. It took my kids six months to catch up, but they did.

YRMV.

PS: recalling my final straw was when one of my kids came home from (public) school (just at the beginning of COVID) and was telling me that Bill Gates started COVID so he could profit from the vaccine. I was a bit surprised to hear this so I asked him where he heard that, he said his teacher 'covered that in class today.' I told the principal & district and they did nothing. Not even a warning. Union town. Union rules.

[CascadeLuke]

Good discussion, we’ve got some proper parents up in here. Regarding the Seattle area schools- burbs will do ya better. Eastlake is a mountain top these days but there are several great options in Lake WA SD, Northshore, Issaquah, and Bellevue if you’ve got it like that.
There used to be style points for living in the cool neighborhood pockets of Seattle but that status has recently devalued like NFTs.
I couldn’t swing Eastlake / Sammamish real estate prices if I located there now. However the student body is mostly all offspring of highly successful people - you do the math.
Really wish I took better advantage of my opportunity there instead of chasing girls and partying.

[mcski]

Esseff - I think my daughter was in that same class

[Hopeless Sinner]

And you're making sure to act and vote in line with your displeasure on this, right? Schools often transcend politics when people fuck with them enough.

As far as statewide elections one can vote till your BLUE in the face in Idaho and you're just wasting your time. The only "real" input is to become a Republican and vote for the least extreme candidate available in the closed primary.

[phatty]

Good discussion, we’ve got some proper parents up in here. Regarding the Seattle area schools- burbs will do ya better. Eastlake is a mountain top these days but there are several great options in Lake WA SD, Northshore, Issaquah, and Bellevue if you’ve got it like that.
There used to be style points for living in the cool neighborhood pockets of Seattle but that status has recently devalued like NFTs.
I couldn’t swing Eastlake / Sammamish real estate prices if I located there now. However the student body is mostly all offspring of highly successful people - you do the math.
Really wish I took better advantage of my opportunity there instead of chasing girls and partying.

Yeah, no way I could live out here if I didn't buy in 20yrs ago. All the schools out on the Eastside will be good.

[Cisco Kid]

When a teacher told the class that, by her definition, my wife's father was going to hell and my MIL found out she rode her bike directly to the school and had a sit down with the teacher. Anybody here ever think of doing that? Good teaching moments for you and your kid.

[schuss]

As far as statewide elections one can vote till your BLUE in the face in Idaho and you're just wasting your time. The only "real" input is to become a Republican and vote for the least extreme candidate available in the closed primary.

That's partially what I mean. Schools are often heavily local in what influences them, so good chance of making a difference if you start mobilizing people as changing a shitstain for someone that sees schools as their ticket to reelection is a win.